‘Namaste, Madame Le President’s Partner’

PARIS — President François Hollande can already count one victory in the French effort to win favor in India. Unlike his predecessor, he will be able to share the pomp of a state reception in New Delhi with his girlfriend.

In his first official trip to the subcontinent next week, Mr. Hollande will travel with a crowded delegation and a crucial mission: persuading the Indian government to buy Areva’s nuclear plants and sealing a deal to sell Dassault’s Rafale jet fighters. The deals could breathe some much-needed air in his country’s stalled economy.

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Indian authorities have already made a gesture of goodwill: Mr. Hollande’s out-of-wedlock relationship with Valérie Trierweiler, his partner of six years, will not be frowned upon, and Ms. Trierweiler will be allowed to attend state banquets and other official events.

Those in charge of Indian protocol have come up with a solution that avoids embarrassment and saves appearances for what is usually a head of state accompanied by his wife with the protocol to match. In this case, Ms. Trierweiler, a twice-divorced journalist who used to cover Mr. Hollande for weekly magazine Paris Match, will be treated as Mr. Hollande’s spouse.

“She will be treated with the dignity provided to the partners of visiting heads of state,” said Syed Akbaruddin, a foreign ministry spokesman in Delhi. “It’s not in the tradition of Indian hospitality to question the choices of our guests.”

A spokesman for the French Presidency confirmed that Ms. Trierweiler will participate in the state visit, but declined to comment on matters of protocol because that’s the prerogative of Indian authorities. A spokesman for Ms. Trierweiler noted that she already has received equivalent treatment to a spouse when traveling to other foreign countries, including the U.S.

Still, the move by Indian authorities marks a clear departure from the less accommodating position they adopted in 2008, when freshly-elected Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr. Hollande’s predecessor, traveled to New Delhi.

The conservative President was made to understand that Carla Bruni, the model-turned-singer he had been dating for three months, would not easily find a place in official protocol, said Christophe Jaffrelot, a professor at Paris-based Sciences-Po university, who has been advising French governments on Indian affairs for almost two decades and participated in the 2008 trip.

Ms. Bruni remained in Paris, and the French President couldn’t take her for a romantic escapade to the Taj Mahal, a world-renowned destination for lovers.

“Mr. Sarkozy went to the Taj with a group of ministers from his government,” Mr. Jaffrelot said. “It was quite funny.”

Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Bruni got married a few weeks after coming back to Paris, and when the President went back to India two years later, he visited the Taj Mahal again. This time, though, he was accompanied by his wife.

If Mr. Hollande visits the Taj Mahal – the official itinerary has not yet been released – he will be able to take his partner, and won’t need to put a ring on her finger or visit again to hold hands in front of the white marble mausoleum that Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built in memory of his third wife.

Ms. Trierweiler will enjoy the “full Indian red-carpet treatment,” said Dusha Vidanovich, managing director of the London-based European School of Protocol.

Ms. Vidanovich said Ms. Trierweiler’s first-lady status will allow her to have a separate motorcade when the French delegation speeds through Delhi, and to be seated next to the Indian Prime Minister’s wife at the official banquet. While Mr. Hollande talks nuclear power plants and combat jets, Ms. Trierweiler will be engaged with an elaborate program on her own, Ms. Vidanovich added.

“I can’t recall this happening before,” said Ms. Vidanovich.

Even if the arrangements avoid any awkwardness, Ms. Trierweiler recently received some informed advice on how to ensure she isn’t tripped up in the future.

“It’s a lot easier to be the legitimate wife of the President than his partner,” Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy told Elle, a magazine, after the interviewer asked her whether she had any advice for Ms. Trierweiler. “I’m talking from personal experience.”

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